Chamber and committees

The police investigation is still ongoing.

The Scottish Government does not recognise the use of the term “separation” in the context of Scottish independence. Scottish independence would be based on new relationships to make our nation more successful and to improve the lives of the people who live in Scotland. Decisions on defence budgets in an independent Scotland would be subject to future consideration and approval by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament.

<>I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-09805 on 22 October 2012. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

<>A survey of community planning partnerships conducted in April this year found that the third sector is represented at the highest decision-making level in all 32 Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs). The results of the survey, which was carried out by the Improvement Service to inform the joint review of community planning carried out earlier this year by the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, can be found at http://www.improvementservice.org.uk/news-2012/may-2012/community-planning-survey-results-published/.

The Scottish Government contribution to the Early Years Change Fund is set out in the following table.

	2012-13 £ million	2013-14 £ million	2014-15 £ million	2015-16 £ million	Total £ million
Scottish Government	10.5	14.5	16.5	8.5	50

The Education and Lifelong Learning portfolio budget in total for 2012-13 as published in the Budget Bill is £2,699.9 million. The percentage of this spent on the Early Years Change Fund for 2012-13 is therefore 0.39%.

The remainder of the £272 million Early Years Change Fund is made up of contributions from local government and NHS Scotland. This fund represents a good starting point for all partners to consider how we can begin to direct more of our overall resource away from treating our problems to funding the solutions. Under the Fund we expect all partners to consider how they can support universal services to deliver better outcomes for children in their early years and families and to bring the totality of their resources to discussions on how we can best deliver the aspirations of the Early Years Framework.

The Draft Budget 2011-12 allocated £70 million to the Reshaping Care for Older People Change Fund. The Early Years Change Fund and the Reducing Reoffending Change Fund were introduced for 2012-13, and therefore did not have a budget for 2011-12.

The budgets for all three change funds for 2012-13 and 2013-14 are set out in the Scottish Spending Review 2011 and Draft Budget 2012-13, which can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/359651/0121519.pdf.

Details of the justice budget, including the amounts allocated to the Reducing Reoffending Change Fund, can be found in the Scottish Spending Review 2011 and Draft Budget 2012-13:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/359651/0121519.pdf.

The Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities will give evidence on the draft budget 2013-14 to the Welfare Reform Committee on 23 October.

The reasons behind the fall in the level of relative poverty for 2010-11 are set out in Section 2.1 of the National Statistics publication “Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland: 2010-11”.

The following extract is from Section 2.1 of the publication:

The following factors have influenced the reduction in relative poverty in 2010-11:

Median equivalised household income decreased in real terms (down from £439 to £416 in 2010-11), which in turn decreased the relative poverty thresholds.

Individual earnings fell in real terms in 2010-11 and this was one of the main factors in the reduction in median incomes.

Benefit and tax credit income grew in cash terms and fell only slightly in real terms. This meant that low-income benefit-dependent households saw their income fall less in 2010-11 than households at the median, tending to decrease the overall rate of relative poverty, before and after housing costs.

The full publication can be accessed via the following link: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0039/00394961.pdf.

<>Community Planning Partnerships choose the local outcomes to be delivered through their single outcome agreements, the resources to be allocated and the indicators by which progress in achieving those outcomes will be measured. However, in so doing they are expected to show clear alignment to the National Outcomes set out in Scotland Performs, which include tackling the significant inequalities in Scottish society; and to use performance indicators that are robust and measurable, drawing on the Menu of Local Outcome Indicators developed by the SOLACE-led Improving Local Outcome Indicators Project (ILOIP). The Menu is available on the Improvement Service website at http://www.improvementservice.org.uk/local-outcome-indicators/.